


Extracts Towards A Bibliography

by emilyenrose



Category: Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Academia, Gen, Nerdiness, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-13
Updated: 2012-12-13
Packaged: 2017-11-21 01:59:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/592186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emilyenrose/pseuds/emilyenrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'The epic popularly known as The Lord Of The Rings is at heart a simple adventure story and has no real historical relevance.' Do you agree? Discuss with reference to Cox et al.</p>
<p>(Essay set for first year undergraduates at the University of New Bree, F.A. 3011)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Extracts Towards A Bibliography

…a profoundly political and politically conservative work. The character of Aragorn - formerly a footnote in the epic cycle, but significantly a traditional ancestor of the empire’s newly powerful ruling family - is through the work of the poet backdated to the ‘Dawn of the Age’ and given several signs of the divinely appointed nature of his rule: descended from a demigod, married to a demigoddess, the ‘returning’ King is invested with messianic power and messianic virtues.

\- Samwise J. Cox,  _Epic and Empire_ , F.A. 3001

 

 

The uninhabited (indeed, uninhabitable) volcanic landscape of ‘Mordor’ (the modern Marova desert) must have struck the composer of the Ring Cycle as an ideal place to locate a brooding evil; after all, no one would be able to check. But Cox correctly identifies the traditional Gondorian rivalry with the kingdoms that controlled her Eastern trade routes (the ‘Easterlings’ of the poem) as the key to understanding the role played by Mordor in the Gondorian imagination.

\- Bronwyn Marleth, ‘Populating Mordor: The Orc as Other’, F.A. 3006

 

 

Belief is a tricky thing to define. It would certainly be untrue to say that the auditors of the Ring stories did  _not_ believe in Elves - but ‘belief’ does not necessarily imply ‘credence’…

M. Esgal, ‘Did the Ancients Believe in their Elves?’, F.A. 2987


End file.
